


Against the Nature

by Nicky_Gabriel



Series: Not Bad for... a Human [3]
Category: Aliens (1986), Aliens vs Predators Series - Various Authors
Genre: Crossover, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-18
Updated: 2014-11-18
Packaged: 2018-02-26 04:56:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,048
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2638838
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nicky_Gabriel/pseuds/Nicky_Gabriel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Ripley, we have a problem."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Against the Nature

**Author's Note:**

> Beta-read by Heavenly Bodies. Thank you!  
> All mistakes left are mine.

“Ripley, we have a problem,” Bishop’s voice wakes her up and his facial expression is not at all reassuring. He’s standing next to her stasis chamber, frowning, and she’s filled with dread immediately. 

“The aliens?” She’s trying to find her voice. Is this nightmare never going to end?

Bishop shrugs, just like a human would have.

“I don’t know,” he says. “There’s an unidentified spaceship approaching on an intercepting trajectory.”

“The Company?” Ripley sits up, getting rid of the remaining hibernation dizziness with a shake of her head. 

Bishop hesitates noticeably. “I can’t confirm it, but I don’t think so. The technology is unknown to me.”

Unknown. Ripley hates unknown. She stumbles toward where Newt is sleeping to check on her status. The scan results show the girl is okay and that they’ve been sleeping for just two days. Next, Ripley checks up on Hicks, whose condition is much better than when she last saw him. There’s a reason why Weyland-Yutani has the best medical equipment in the solar system, and the corporal should be okay within the next few weeks.

Bishop’s waiting patiently until she’s done, but he isn’t wasting time. “The ship is almost twice as big as the Sulaco and she’s approaching LV-426. Yesterday, the scanners didn’t detect any life forms. Today, there are two.”

“Yesterday?” Ripley raises an eyebrow.

“I saw no reason to wake you up immediately.” He looks at her. “Their engines weren’t working and the ship looked abandoned. Our scanners identified life forms about half an hour ago and we’ll be able to contact then in about two hours.” 

Out of the blue Ripley thinks of Gorman, maybe because she never wanted to be any kind of commander and she still doesn’t. 

“Okay.” She follows Bishop to the bridge, glad that he’s moving much more easily than two days ago. “How are you feeling?”

Bishop seems surprised by the question, but answers the best he can. “I regained 82.7% of manual efficiency. Complete regeneration of my hydraulic system will take another 72 hours.”

Ripley nods and looks at the console. “The ship wasn’t built by humans,” she says with some kind of déjà vu. She still remembers her first ‘meeting’ with the alien. 

“No, it wasn’t,” Bishop confirms. “The layout and decks’ height indicates a species different to humans, however our database doesn’t have a match for this technology, and, no, the technology is not even remotely similar to what they found on LV-426.”

Ripley didn’t even know she’d been holding her breath. She doesn’t trust _any_ technology. Not after what happened to the rest of her team. Her team? She sighs. She wasn’t even supposed to be there. They were Gorman’s people – all of them.

“We are receiving a signal, but it’s not our standard frequency,” Bishop says and they sit down in the chairs at the control panel.

“What are they sending?”

“Just audio.” Bishop adjusts the readings. “Our receiver doesn’t recognize their video format.”

 _“... where we are. Can you help us?”_ That’s all they can hear of the speakers.

“They are most certainly people,” Ripley says surprised.

Bishop doesn’t say anything, waiting for her decision. Had his behavioral inhibitors been working, he would have suggested helping them, but now he can consider every angle of the situation. His first priority is the safety of the Sulaco’s crew and now Ripley is in command.

Ripley notices Bishop’s non-response.

“You’re saying they are going to LV-426?”

“Considering their speed and direction: yes. It’s not a very busy part of the system, so the corporations don’t monitor this territory often. That’s why we didn’t notice them last week when we were heading toward the moon.”

Ripley thinks about it. Maybe they really aren’t part of the Company? Whatever the answer might be, she can’t just ignore it and let them land on the moon. They would die one way or another.

“We have to warn them,” she says finally.

“Affirmative.” Bishop nods, opening the channel. “This is the U.S.S. transport ship Sulaco.” 

A moment of silence and then, _“This is Alexa Woods. We don’t know what kind of ship this is. We think they are all dead.”_

“Do you have quarantine?” Bishop asks the standard question. 

Another long moment of silence follows. _“Quarantine? I don’t think so. They... were killed. Where are we?”_

“Three days from LV-426.”

_“LV-426?”_

“A planet terra-formed by the Company,” Bishop explains. “According to your flight trajectory it’s your destination.”

_“Are we really not on Earth?”_

Ripley thinks it’s a strange question. “We are... far away from Earth,” she joins the conversation, deciding it’s better not to tell them just yet how far from Earth they actually are.

 _“Can you take us there?”_ Woods sounds desperate.

“How many of you are there?”

 _“Just Weyland and me.”_ Apparently Woods is doing what she can to fight a panic attack. 

“Who?” Ripley can’t help asking the question.

 _“Charles Weyland.”_ Another voice joins them. _“We found nobody else. Can you take us from here?”_

Ripley glances at Bishop. 

“It’s a popular name.” he explains.

She turns off the microphone. “Do you think they are lying?”

Bishop tilts his head. “Voice analyze indicates they believe they are telling the truth.” And then he adds. “Little reassurance it is.”

“Do we have a way to check how many of them are really there?”

Bishop looks out the window, where now they can clearly see the alien ship approaching. “If they are in stasis chambers, we can’t. Unless we have access to their onboard computer.”

“So, the ship woke them up when we were close enough for them to detect us?”

Bishop nods.

“So,” Ripley continues, “we won’t know if there’s anybody else without going there and if we did, we might just end up in a trap?”

“Exactly.”

Ripley looks to where behind the door Newt and Hicks are sleeping.

“I’ll go,” Bishop says simply. 

Another déjà vu? She doesn’t like his plan this time. And she doesn’t like that she doesn’t like it.

“Bishop...”

“You can’t change who I am without reprogramming me entirely. I'll go.”

She can’t argue that, so Bishop goes and she’s left to wait. And now she’s sure why she had never wanted to be the one in command. Waiting isn’t in her nature.


End file.
